Think how the body-piercing favoured by punk-rockers lost its power to shock after young bankers started sporting discreet earrings with their pinstriped suits.

Japanese industry, which has a leading position in nuclear power, got a shock when South Korea unexpectedly won a contract to supply four reactors to the United Arab Emirates last December.

But more than eight years after the nation's deadliest terror attack, the images still had the power to shock and disturb.